Swollen and Ripe

http://www.twistedrootstudios.com

She hangs swollen and ripe in the sky
this night
She calls to me...so near
She holds me tonight
wrapping me in my swollen and ripe 
memories
of you
and I
of us

Those steps taken along the paths
and near the lakes
are releasing
I watch them fly
away to the moon
Swollen and ripe
She will heal them for me
for you
for us

The paths we never discovered
we will never know
They were released before
our knowledge of them
became swollen and ripened
The loss of this unknown reality
haunted me...for a bit
It lived an undead life
for too long
It dies  its death today....and is buried
honored and put away
It will fade
never to be swollen and ripe
The death of knowledge
such a travesty 

Time ripens

We ripened too quickly
Lost in the swells that took us down
into the ocean of connection
But it was not to be
it seems
Unprepared was the Captain this time
still
And the Ocean soul will not return
to a life....... future
Tis now or not
She cries
She cries and sings the truth
to the Captain
She will not search again

My last tears fall upon my
cheek today
in the daylight, without my moon
My eyes
swollen and ripe
Where are you now, moon?
Take my mingled and misaligned memories
please
Let them fly
away to you
As you sit seated in your wise and sacred station 
above my life
Swollen and ripe

to the wind

I am Green
a name chosen
for myself
by myself
of myself
yet I am not defined
by a name
There is no definition to
speak of all I am
and I am 
Not

I am Harmony
I bring harmony
to those I encounter
it is, however
not all I am
and it is also
who I am not
I am harmonic...blending
as I bring together
the masses
I may blend in silence
or with laughter
or by holding you
and rocking your woes
away

I am Embra
The melding of my two favorite
names
To honor them
to keep the vibe of all they are
close
For a name does not define them
it never can
One can not label
their own flesh and blood
All they are is so much, always
All they are not
also a gift

Who are you?
Tell me, I want to know all 
you are
and all you are not
Share your labels with me
and then throw them to the wind
as I throw mine
and you and me will become
Us

The Shadow Cast

Blazing across the sky
wings on fire
You got too close to the sun
too close to the beauty
burning hot and fiercely bright
you had to look away
you looked away
just long enough 
to lose
the sun, the center, the one
that warms and illuminates you

She lit the darkness
and spelled the inner wanting
you carry every day
for a while
And when you realized how much
you had grown in her loving rays
you ran
You left the sun to shine on others
For the shadow cast in her brilliance
would not stop following you
Wings on fire....falling
you were

But the sun still shines, she still warms
as you heal your burned flesh
she warms others, always
Her light still shines on you, man of fear
She shines knowing you will finally
let go the fear of the shadow
and one day, you will speak to her of your 
journey to yourself

Go...run..heal
She still shines
on others
always
Your wings on fire
no more
safe on the ground
you are
Looking up at your sun
now and again....
knowing

She knows 
too

http://www.twistedrootstudios.com

Crooked Smile

she moves across the floor alone..
eyes closed, crooked smile adorning her content face
swaying and moving alone with his slide
and the intoxicating vibe of the harp
mmmm, how she digs the intensity of the harmonica
in a blues band

amidst the couples in united partnership
moving, man leading
woman follows
not this broad...her partner
the music, the history, the release of the
lyrics of  the funky song
lost in her love of the music and the vibe
she is alone and blissful

leave her this way
do not enter the domain she has
built for herself
on the floor
be gone with you
mere mortal man....silly human
be gone with you
she is content, happy..do not disturb
do not enter the lair of the blues broad

she loves the blues
and you may ask her why
she will answer
"Did you not see me
moving across the floor alone..
eyes closed, crooked smile adorning my content face
swaying and moving alone with his slide
and the intoxicating vibe of the harp?
It seems you have not been 
paying attention"

be gone, now....
leave me here on the floor
swaying with my crooked smile

My brother of the blues...Rev Raven. <3

There is No THEM

Plans change....they vacillate
and you find yourself attempting to
assimilate
in the wink of an eye

Get used to it, tis the way of the world
Change is innate within us, and our planet
So be it
Understand that you may not
understand what the hell is going on
Get used to it
Cuz as soon as you do
gain some understanding
shit changes again!!
Tis the way of the world

Learn to flow with the current of this
mighty river we call life
Change your thoughts about someone
about your self
about your limitations
Fuck what THEY told you could or could not be
accomplished
THEY were WRONG!!!!
Accomplish all you can and want to
regardless of  the self limiting
beliefs of someone you do not even know
THEY are faceless fears perpetuated
Over and over, a river often too mighty to traverse

Tell THEM to bite you
From the top of your LUNGS!
Respectfully, of course...
Or NOT

You gonna give your power and peace to
THEM?
Go ahead then, you've got it down
Me?
I'll allow the truth that plans change
and I may even be the one to change them!!
Imagine that..(insert gasp here)

What you got to say about that
THEM ?
Yeah, that's what I thought...
you got nuthin
I can not hear you
Where is that voice telling me I can not do or say or know?
Where did you go?
Ah, yes....
I changed the plan
and
now...

You do not exist

But I DO!

http://www.twistedrootstudios.com

Swaying

The plains are now covered in show...deep in hibernation
The dust of the morning will swirl in the wind another day
I look ahead with great and grateful anticipation
We shall return to Illinois, in each other's arms we'll sway

The river is now icy as steam rises from her wet expanse
Dan's boulders sit guarding the place where we mingle and meld
It is OUR time.. mellow and peaceful, lit by the full moon's romance
Bits of ourselves we leave there each year, in the trees these pieces are held

Each time we return, we blend the now, the then and the when
Into the truth we all carry collectively
As we hug,we become the trees and their branches as we all sway and bend
With my family of the soul, I am real, we are tight...I see you, and you me

Illinois, looks like you'll see us again and again and again

My Medicine, My Treasure....For Paula

The medicine bag around my neck

carries my mojo

My medicine, my native soul

lives within

Inside, my treasures

She gifted me that night

and in the reveling light of morn

I knew her gift would live

amongst my magic, my medicine

Inside as one of my treasures

She honors my decision

to make her gift an extension

of my mojo

She gifted me more mojo

Inside me, she is now also a treasure

Late night gifts

bring early morning awareness

In order for a gifter to gift

someone must receive

Inside themselves, they must allow the treasure

Thank you, treasured friend

for giving

so I may take and integrate

my mojo

Inside my treasured bag of medicine

When We Know

two as one
if we are distant
or far away
it matters not
when I know you
as friend
space is not space
at all
for I carry you in my dna
you are part of my
soul
you and I know
 no distance
when we know each other as
friend
you are a friend of mine

the love of my life
are my friends
you are here, constant
and real
truthful and faithful
as you rock me
and we sway wrapped up
in the love
we are creating
that moment
you are a friend of mine

this love.. blending
like a fine, deep, spicy gumbo
fragrant and sustaining...nourishing
my soul
feeding my heart
satiated and satisfied I find
myself
over and over again
all because
you are a friend of mine

two as one
if we are distant
or far away
it matters not
when I know you
as friend
space is not space
at all
for I carry you in my dna
you are part of my
soul
you and I 
know no distance
when we know each other as
friend
you are a friend of mine

We Are The Tribe

Holding those who are not with us physically
so very close
There is no distance in our tribe
We walk together always
Through all that life offers and throws at us
every day
We know the same truths
We carry the same melded wisdom
We are always a tribe
in all ways
Hearts and tears are felt far and wide
As the love grows
In the space we create for it to grow
Distance is just space to fill 
with love
We got that one down
Tis how we roll
We are all in Dallas this weekend
Because we are, at our core, The Tribe
Tis how we roll
Aho!

I Was..I Am

in a moment
it all changes
what once was
is no longer
we walked together
now we run away
I was poor
now I am comfortable
I was young
and now I age
I was innocent
long ago
now I am weather tested
and living my truth
I own wisdom wide
vast and deep
I am who I came here to be
I am the me
I want you to know
I am my best me
right now
know me

http://www.twistedrootstudios.com

Tell Me (Your Stories)

Tell me your stories
If they are bathed in truth
Tell me your stories
The ones of your youth
Tell me your stories
Let me know your past glorious
Tell me your stories
Tell me of times you were victorious
Tell me your stories outrageous
Your ebb and flow and your voice is contagious
Tell me all about you
And listen as I share about me, too
As we share, we grow the love between us
We build a bridge of trust

Tell me your stories, I shall keep them like treasures of gold
Buried in my heart, as they grow with me as I get old
Tell me your stories, your triumphs and regrets

And I will speak them back to you if you ever forget

http://www.twistedrootstudios.com

one with the clouds

the air so thin up here
on this mountain
I am enveloped within the silence
of being so high
so close
to the clouds
I can touch them
they wrap around me
I am one with the clouds

freedom mine finally
alone never
at peace, always
in all ways
I have found my power place

high on this mountain
high on my life
only venturing down
when I decide it is time
and then..I return to the lofty
lodge my soul inhabits

home, I am, on this mountain
home, I am, within the quiet life
I have chosen
I thrive on my mountain
I live my life fully, here, now
high on this mountain
where I am one with the clouds

Pages of Her Story

http://www.twistedrootstudios.com

Held with love within the grove of trees

As they sway and sing in the deep summer breeze

She turns and heads in the direction she had come from

Entranced by the colors strewn across the sky in the setting sun

 

Healed is her sorrow, it lives within her no longer

This last battle of the heart has only made her stronger

Still she releases the memories, magical but few

They live in the chambers of her heart….blended like the sunset in many hues

 

As she walks she leaves pieces of the past along this woodland path

She prepares for the journey laid out ahead …..her hand loosening its grasp

On what had been, focus now on what will be

Horizon of the newness greets her daily….ahead, her destiny

 

She sets her compass west, into the setting glorious fire orb

Pinks and purples and deep awareness present now for her soul to absorb

She left these pages of her story amongst the grove of grateful hickory trees

They will guard them for her as they hold and preserve these precious memories

 

Milk Chocolate Morning

Dark man approaches woman light
Touches her soft skin and whispers to her
the desires that have lived within him
Without her
Now, she stands before him
Ready to meet his freshly spoken needs
She meets them as she knows them as her own
In the fire's glow, orange and red
The dark and the light merge
Pre-dawn twilight intertwines in the calm
perfect stillness
He enters her domain gently with respect and honor
Pace quickens as her eyes once blue
become the brown of the earth that births
their union
His, once brown.. Now blue as the day's sky
Swells increase like waves taking them down deeply
And rising in the next moment
Gasping for air before they dive into each other
Again and again
Magic flies around them
Inter dimensional desire has been realized this night
Deep in the woods where she first heard the rhythm of the rain
As Father Sky made love to Mother Earth
So, too, have they known the recesses of each other...finally
As the cabin deep in the woods offers shelter
They are lost inside each other as deep as the dark he is
Passion illuminated in the light she represents
Pre-dawn twilight brings the milk chocolate
morning...Sweet ... Melting
in their grateful mouths
Discovering and tasting... Knowing
Finally

http://www.twistedrootstudios.com

Strings Silenced Suddenly

Spotlight cracks the deep darkness
Orchestral soul song rises
Ballet begins
He lifts her into the waiting air between them
and holds her there, motionless...beautifully still
Breaking the silence...he slides her down his body....slowly
Seductively
The audience takes in a collective heavy breath
Releasing it as he releases her
She spins away as they watch with great anticiaption
Eyes fixed on her perfect flowing form
And as she turns to greet his gaze
She finds him not.....he has disappeared
Searching the stage, her eyes do not rest upon his
Waiting in the wings, he is.. perhaps
He has changed the cadence of the deep dance they knew
He has flown away
And now the stage will grace their union no more
The dance is done
The audience retreats
The orchestra now only strings silenced....suddenly
The spotlight no longer lights their way
Left without her partner..she gives in to her only real choice
Her heart has said goodbye to him
tonight

requiem for hope

Moon beam bright lights my soul's mission
here in the dark of early morn
Lost in the past that led no where
Hope died and I cried and now I pen this eulogy

Fire burn of transformation not of my hand or even yours
Transmuted the place we were
Somehow I forgot to let it all go
I denied the honor of the process  
Today I open my hand and release the dove of pieces

Hope passed away.. yet I attempt to live the memory of it, still
Hope died and I cried and now I pen this eulogy

Had it ever lived?
This hope that I grieve for now
Was the frenzied fantasy ever to become a reality
Did my longing for the outcome make it a possibility
Or was it dead from the glorious beginning

Was there ever a beginning
or...
Was there only an inevitable end

Hope passed away... yet I attempt to live the memory of it, still
Hope died and I cried and now I pen this eulogy
 
Today I attend the sobering, somber service to say good bye
to hope
to possibilities
to the beginning
and in the wondering wake of it all... I say hello
to the end of the journey
I say hello to myself
once again
I revive the her I was before

Before hope took me to an end 
as dead as she is now

Be on your way...hope
Heal us who have known you
If only for a moment as perfectly imperfect
as any moment could ever be
or could never.... be

Hope, fly away to your destination far from
my aching hollowed heart
If you find your wings again...may you travel a sky
blue and filled with the billowy clouds
of acceptance and connection
May you be free to land and take flight at will
And may you grace the unions of those
who can allow you

To my new beginning I say "Welcome"
Hope passed away..and today, I accept this fact, this stinging truth
Hope died and I cried and now I pen this eulogy 
in the dark of early morn
My mission lit by the bright beaming soul bath of the moon

http://www.twistedrootstudios.com

Cut, Carrot, Calamity

Cut my loses...love lies broken

Dangled like a carrot...the words never spoken

So much pressure atop us in the midst of the blended energy

Cut, Carrot and Calamity

Cut up pieces of our connection

Julienned into a Cole Slaw of rejection

Harvested and peeled...the nourishment withheld from me

Cut, Carrot and Calamity

 Living in the soil Gaia provided for us

A garden grown in the compost of dying trust

These days our love lies disassembled... cut into for all eternity

Cut, Carrot and Calamity

Little people cut out of paper mache'

 No more is the carrot dangled in the light of day

 But the pressure formed a jewel in the dark soil.. you see

Cut, Carrot and Calamity

 As I pick up the pieces of our brilliant diamond love off the floor

I know I would have done it the same...if time were gifted to us more

Today I allow the carrot and its knowledge to feed me

It's healed now....Cut, Carrot and Calamity

I wish you much forward vision as our diamond lies in pieces

May you find self connection when the pain finally ceases

The jewel we created is new life born of you and me

Transformed in the diamond's compressed shine: Cut, Carat and Clarity

http://www.twistedrootstudios.com

Worthy.....

Out in front
The point of the V
The flock follows...you are the guide
Such a  precious gift
Trust
That
You
Are
Worthy
Worthy of the position
Worthy of the path
Be it chosen for you
Or chosen by you
Be 
Worthy
Moving into territory
unknown
But your soul knows
You are worthy
Your soul already knows this new ground
Allow it to be under your feet
Allow your wings to take you where you must
Go...now
You 
Are
Worthy
Eyes horizon bound
See where you are headed
Head where you must find yourself
You
Are
Worthy
Be 
Fearless
Befriend the fear
Let your fear be the wind that lifts you
Let your courage drive you on
You
Are 
Worthy
You
Are 
Not
Alone
That's me there with you
Always
I am there
Feel me
Know me there
Allow my presence
You
Are
Worthy

http://www.twistedrootstudios.com

Away

Lonely for the touch of my lady
one I have allowed to slip away from me
And now, I long for her
Her face..her voice...her scent..her wisdom
I am looking
and she has flown away

Had I known I held the key
to the gilded cage
of my heart
she had come to occupy
I would have never opened the lock
and now I am looking
and she has flown away

My days become nights now
I am blinded by the white light of lonely
It surrounds me...illuminating my
looking
But she has flown away

Lonely for the touch of my lady
one I have allowed to slip away from me
And now, I long for her
Her face..her voice...her scent..her wisdom
I am looking
and she has flown away

http://www.twistedrootstudios.com

Unmeasurable

How to measure a love?

Can something so sweetly perfect

be measured?

Can a decision so deep be quantified?

I love you because I saw the truth in you

I felt the connection

I know the you you are

Unmeasurable

But oh so real is my love

It can not be contained

It swirls around you and sings in your ear

It touches you softly in the night

when you are afraid 

My love knows no measure

But it is oh so real

Let me love you

in my miraculously

unmeasurable way

Let me make the decision that you are worthy

of my love......

Unmeasurable

http://www.twistedrootstudios.com

Soft Spring Rain

Soft Spring Rain
washes away the winter
in my soul
My body, mind and spirit stretch
Arms overhead
a lil dance in my step
I am once again
awake

Awake, alert, aware
Activated to move
bend
arch
sway
vibrate
BE

I am once again awake
thank you
Soft Spring Rain

http://www.twistedrootstudios.com

We Lived Them Well

Summer here
ah, but so soon gone
We lived it well

Love blooming all around
in the pinks of the peonies
and the red of the roses so fragrant

Summer gone
enter the crisp, cool Fall
We lived it well

Headdresses of the trees becoming
vivid and then vacant
Gold and green and red and orange...blended

Winter here
The white truth of the frozen world
We lived it well

Breath hanging in the cold, perfect ghostly air
Footprints left behind
to retrace some day, perhaps?

Spring comes soon
the promise of the new day
We will live it well

The smell of the wet, pungent earth
the song of the birds
Bare feet on Gaia's tender green grass..connected


Our seasons......
We
lived
them
well

http://www.twistedrootstudios.com

Possible...

If it is broken
it can be repaired
In the breaking
there is mending
In the mending
there is healing
In the healing
there are
new possibilities

I will spend my time
with those
who live the truth of possibilities
Possibilities are endless...
limitless
the soil for newness
to grow

Continue to grow with me
fellow believer in possibilities
As the raptors soar over the expansive river
we also soar, wings lifted on the wind
and we know
the beauty of each other
in new ways
As we approach the horizon known as
possibilities

http://www.twistedrootstudios.com